A frustrating failure to beat the AFL\u2019s top sides has Hawthorn desperate to get the better of Geelong on Easter Monday at the MCG,<\/p>\n
Ahead of his 100th game in charge of the Hawks, coach Sam Mitchell said Hawthorn had to \u201cdevelop a game style\u201d that will stood up in \u201cfinals and against the best teams\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cLook at the journey and what we tried to start, what we tried to develop, and there is a level of \u2018we\u2019re on the right track, but not there yet\u2019 about it,\u201d Mitchell said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to be an exciting team. We want to get fans to games. We want to play a brand that stands up in big moments. <\/p>\n
\u201cLast year, we played against the two grand-finalists (Brisbane and Geelong) four times, and we couldn\u2019t win those games.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of them being Geelong … they\u2019ve been too good for us. We need to continue to improve our game to make sure that we can beat the best sides, and they\u2019re one of them.”<\/p>\n
The Hawks have lost seven of their past eight encounters with the Cats.<\/p>\n
\u201cGames between Hawthorn and Geelong are games people want to see, but they\u2019ve won far too many of them over the journey,\u201d Mitchell said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to start to right that ship. They\u2019re a quality side. They\u2019ve been annoyingly good for a long time, and we\u2019ll try to do our part for the rest of the competition and take them down on Monday.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mitchell took heart from Brisbane\u2019s journey to back-to-back premierships in remaining confident that Hawthorn\u2019s well-established list would eventually lead the club to a flag.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe figured out who we thought would be our future premiership players,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you look at Brisbane prior to their premierships (in 2024 and 2025), if you go back four or five years before that, they were playing the same list over and over and over and over again, almost regardless of performance.
\u201cThen all these players that might be a bit slow burn at the start, they all pop up and become great players and premiership players.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not that we copied them necessarily, but it is a model where … it takes 50 games to become a consistent AFL performer at least, (and) for some it takes more than that.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re not going to be a consistent AFL team before you get enough players to that point. The best sides have proven that over a long period.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Hawks won\u2019t be able to used tiredness as an excuse if they lose on Monday, having not played since beating Sydney by 17 points on March 19.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had four days off to start, and then basically it\u2019s been back to a normal sort of routine for us,\u201d Mitchell said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe trained quite hard on the weekend just gone. We had a really tough session on Saturday. You can get a pretty quick shock if you\u2019re not ready.\u201d<\/p>\n